Sticky Hands
by NightFury812
Summary: On a day off, Naruto decides to invent a new jutsu that gets him and Sakura into a bit of a sticky situation.


**Sticky Hands**

* * *

The months following the fourth great ninja war were eventful, but there were also lot of dull moments as well. A lot of cleaning and rebuilding needed to be done, much to Naruto's dislike. Thankfully, the village was almost back to it's former glory, and today was one of the few days where he had some time off. However, this relief was soon ruined by the immense boredom that soon filtered through every last imaginative part of his mind.

"There's got to be something to do," Naruto muttered to himself as he sat up in bed and glanced around at his newly rebuilt apartment. It was still as small as the last one, but unlike the previous apartment, it was somewhat clean due to the lack of time Naruto spent in the place.

"I'm hanging out with Sakura-chan later, but maybe I could do something little beforehand?"

Getting up and pacing around the room, Naruto found himself unable to keep still even during his downtime. The immense chakra flooding through his veins because of his close connection with the kyuubi was like a constant sugar high that kept him awake and alert nearly at all times of the day. It was hell for him to try to sleep at night if he didn't use some of it up during his everyday training exercises.

"I got it!" The golden hair boy said before he grinned happily at the idea. "I'll come up with a new jutsu! I'll come up with the idea all by myself, and show everyone how cool it is!"

Thinking over all the abilities that he currently possessed, he realized that it truly was going to have to be a unique and well thought out original jutsu. It took nearly an hour for him to think of any sort of idea before something occurred to him. A tiny spark that set off a chain of spiraling possibilities that this jutsu could offer him. With a smirk, Naruto gathered up some chakra to use and began working on perfecting it right away.

* * *

The sun began to set over the vast forest surrounding Konoha, and Sakura gave a small sigh as she set her book down on the desk in front of her. She had been reading since noon for Tsunade and was nowhere close to the end of the anatomy book. The kunoichi was touching up on her knowledge of certain things that she rarely had to use while she giving a medical exam, performing a surgery, and so forth. Now, she was mentally exhausted, but she knew that if she tried to sleep then her annoying teammate would be over at her place knocking at her window all night long.

Rubbing her fingers soothingly over her temples, the pink-haired ninja rose from her seat and nearly fell over at the harsh tingling sensation running through her legs. She had been sitting at her desk for so long that her legs had even fallen asleep on her. Grumbling at the minor annoyance, Sakura stumbled over to the door and debated for a heartbeat on whether or not to change out of the skimpy, green tank top that she was wearing only to decide a second later that it wasn't worth it. She just wanted to get her and Naruto's one day a week get together thing over with and go to bed. She had another long day of studying to do tomorrow, and she at least wanted a good nights sleep before she started this grueling process all over again.

* * *

The village was beautifully lit up in the darkening afternoon as Sakura walked out the front door of her apartment building and down the street. A few insects buzzed in her face while she took in the busy sidewalks and shops that were scattered around the village. Swatting them away with a scowl, Sakura clenched her fists and tried to rein in her souring mood as she approached Naruto's building a few blocks away from her own apartment.

She entered the wooden building without hesitation and climbed up the five flights of stairs leading to her teammate's room. Raising a hand to knock, she frowned at the loud yells of triumph that randomly came from behind the door. She could almost sense the neighbors below groaning in annoyance at the blonde's antics. Without bothering to knock, Sakura eased the door open and stared in confusion at the empty room.

"Uh, Naruto?"

"Hey, Sakura-chan!" The kunoichi glanced up and raised an eyebrow at the idiot hanging from the ceiling. "You ready to go?"

"Yeah, but Naruto, what are you doing?"

"I'm practicing my new jutsu! See, look at this!" Naruto exclaimed as he continued to dangle with one hand attached to the ceiling.

"Right, I'm not sure what it is you're trying to do, but let's get going." Sakura deadpanned, unenthused by whatever Naruto was attempting to do after surviving so many hours of intense research and studying.

"B-but it's so neat, I mean look at-"

"Naruto," Sakura growled in warning as her emerald eyes flashed in annoyance.

"…Fine," Naruto mumbled as he focused hard for a second before he dropped with surprising grace to the ground. "But can I at least show you a trick I learned from using this?"

Infuriated from being kept waiting, Sakura reached for her teammate's hand right as he tried to whirl around and head over towards the kitchen table. She tightened her grip on the one she managed to snag from him and began walking out the door, dragging Naruto behind her.

"U-uh, Sakura-chan, I-"

"Close the door," she snapped as an afterthought as they went through the doorway.

The blonde quickly kicked the door shut as he stumbled through it, and with a sigh followed after his teammate who was slowly crushing the life out of his nearly guaranteed broken hand.

* * *

"Do you want to go to the Hibachi grill or Ichiraku for dinner?"

"I-Ichiraku."

That was the last thing Sakura said for several blocks as she trudged along through the crowd, ignoring the blonde's weakening protests behind her. Finally, she came to a stop and glanced over her shoulder at Naruto who was still staring at their connected hands with an obvious look of pain and horror. While Sakura could understand the pain from her crushing grip, the terror that flashed in his cerulean orbs confused her.

"What's wrong?" She asked as she lightened her grip and waited for his response.

"I-I well, my new jutsu, it's still kinda iffy and I think you broke my hand again…" Naruto stuttered as he slowly approached the subject at a snail's pace.

"What do you mean?" Sakura turned around fully as she also began to look at their combined hands that hung in between them.

"It's a sort of toad like jutsu, and I haven't quite nailed it down yet-"

"Am I going to grow warts or something!?" Sakura yelled in outrage as Naruto tried to shy away from her growing anger and suspicious looks. The pink-haired kunoichi ignored Naruto's rapidly growing panicked appearance as she started trying to tug her hand out of his. However, it felt like their hands were glued by cement and they refused to separate.

Naruto yelped in pain as Sakura refused to admit defeat and began tugging more harshly in order to free herself. "A-aaah! S-stop Sakura-chan!"

"Let go of me then, Naruto!"

"I can't!"

With a frustrated huff, Sakura glared daggers at her teammate. "Explain. Right now."

"Like I said before, it's a toad like jutsu where I can stick to walls… and hands apparently. I was thinking of calling it the sticky hands jutsu until I figure out how to get my feet to stick to things too. Then it'll be called the sticky hands and feet jutsu. It's my first original jutsu that requires only a little chakra, so I can stick to things without anyone sensing me." Naruto quickly rambled as Sakura began to understand what was happening.

The memory of the idiot hanging off the ceiling made sense now as Sakura finally figured out what was happening. "Okay, then just release it and let's be on our way."

Naruto nodded and formed half of the proper hand signal with the other hand and tried to end the technique. Nothing happened, and a frown began to form on his face as he struggled internally to make the jutsu stop. Eventually, he opened his eyes and glanced unsurely at their combined hands, which Sakura took as a sign to give an experimental tug, causing Naruto to yelp in pain.

"Are we really stuck together!?"

"Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow!"

"I can't believe this! That's it, let's just get our food, and spend the next few hours trying to figure out this mess you just got us into." Sakura snarled as she took off again in the direction of Ichiraku.

"Ahh, Sakura-chan! You're crushing my hand again!"

* * *

"Oh, Naruto, it's not surprising to see you here, but are you on a date?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Sakura grind her jaw tightly together at the old man's assumption as he noticed the two holding hands. "Uh…. No, not really."

"Then why are-?"

"It's a long story," Sakura cut in with a pleasant tone that didn't quite match the anger that was causing her hand to tremble in Naruto's injured one.

"Well, okay." The old man finally said, backing off the subject.

They ate in silence, but by the time Sakura had finished her bowl of shrimp flavored ramen, Naruto had only finished half of his. He could see her curiously observing him as he tried to pick up another group of noodles with his chopsticks only to have them fall back into the broth. It really sucked trying to eat with his left hand. It was like the equivalent of trying to write a timed essay with your non-dominant hand.

His stomach growled pitifully in protest as he attempted to finish off the first bowl. Nearly a half an hour later Naruto was still hungry, but had finally finished his meal. To his right, Sakura was zoned out and looked more relaxed than she had all night, but when Naruto really looked at her he could see the dark circles beneath her lidded eyes. Naruto was rarely this observant to minor things about his teammates, and he felt a flare of guilt from his stomach instead of the constant hunger pains that had been attacking him nonstop.

When the old man came around to ask if he wanted to start a second bowl like usual, Naruto surprised him by declining and paying for both his and Sakura's meal since it was his week to pay. The pink-haired kunoichi gave him another look but didn't comment as the two began walking away from the restaurant with Sakura leading the way.

"Hey, Sakura-chan, where are we going?"

"Back to my place."

"Shouldn't we tell someone about this?"

"Nah, let's see if we can figure this out by ourselves before we start asking other people for help."

"Okay, but uh Sakura?"

"What?"

"I really have to pee."

"…"

* * *

They eventually settled on the floor of Sakura's bedroom after the terrible bathroom incident with Naruto fidgeting as the kunoichi twisted their hands this way and that to try to figure out how to disconnect them.

"Ow…Uh, can you stop for a second?" Naruto winced as Sakura looked up to meet his pained gaze.

"Did I really break your hand?" Sakura asked in a surprised tone as she gently flipped their wrists again to look for any signs of a serious injury. She carefully poked and prodded the pained area with her free hand until Naruto hissed in a breath and stopped breathing. "Right there, huh? Let me see if I can fix that before we try to rip our hands apart some more."

Mint green chakra built up at her fingertips before she touched her fingers to the aching area and began weaving her chakra into his skin. Normally, whatever injury that she would give to Naruto would heal within the next hour or so, but this time looked like she had accidently gone a bit too far and broke three of his carpal bones in wrist and two of his metacarpals in his palm.

She quickly mended them back together with the best of her ability, recalling information that she had learned from the textbook a few hours ago. As the last one healed up nicely, Sakura leaned back and let out a sigh as she felt herself become even more tired. She didn't even bother to scold Naruto as he bent his wrist and twisted it around a few times to test if it was as good as new, causing her own hand to flop around with his.

"Wow, I can barely even feel any pain. Thanks, Sakura-chan!"

"I'm the one who broke it in the first place though." She pointed out as she moved back to lean against the side of her bed.

"Still, thanks." The blonde said with a grin as he scratched the back of neck with his free hand. "So, do you want to get some sleep and figure the rest of this out tomorrow? You look kind of beat."

Glancing out the window at the cloudy night sky, Sakura nodded and tried to figure out how this was going to work. There was no way she would be sharing a bed with Naruto even if they were teammates and she trusted him with her life.

As if sensing her thoughts, Naruto shrugged and said. "I'll be fine sleeping on the floor. I've slept in worse places."

Giving him a brief smile, Sakura crawled up onto her bed and dropped one of her two blankets down on Naruto's lap before curling up under her remaining one and falling asleep with her arm dangling off the edge of her mattress.

* * *

The next morning felt like a nightmare as Naruto slowly came to and realized that he was still stuck to Sakura. He did love Sakura as a friend, but he knew that she was a ticking time bomb that would soon explode again if this mess wasn't solved soon. Next time, it probably wouldn't be just his hand that got broken if she got too frustrated with this situation.

Their morning routine was lacking in many aspects when Sakura finally did wake up. Since neither of them wanted to shower or use the restroom unless it was absolutely necessary, the two found themselves lying on the ground thinking of ways to fix this mess. Sakura had thankfully found a few pastries stashed away in her cupboard and had given them to the starving blonde who eagerly shoved them into his mouth and devoured them.

It was after the hundredth attempt to break the jutsu that Naruto let out a panicked shout that caused Sakura to jump. He had been trying to form the proper hand signals with just one hand and was now giving his free hand a look of horror.

"What? What happened?" Sakura asked curiously as she sat up and gazed down at the frozen teammate next to her.

"We need help before this gets worse." Naruto breathed out as he showed her his hand. He put to fingers together and pulled them apart with some effort as the skin stuck together but not as intensely as the connection between both their hands. "Oh crap, I just realized that this hand is effected by the sticky hands jutsu too."

"But you were just eating that food! Shouldn't that have stuck to your fingers?"

"Maybe it only sticks to skin permanently?"

Sakura's eyes widened at the thought of someone else joining their chain of joined hands. "Let's go talk to Tsunade-shishou. She might know what to do."

* * *

They had made it nearly halfway to the Hokage building before someone had to come along and ruin their already terrible day.

"What if we are stuck like this for life? How can I become Hokage when I'm tied up like this!? I'm never going to try to create a new jutsu ever again."

"Naruto, your voice is grating on my last nerves." Sakura growled as they made their way down the main road and followed the curved path to the left.

"But think about it, I can't live like this! And I know you won't be able to live like this! I'm going to starve!"

"Get ahold of yourself, we don't even know if this is permanent yet."

"But-"

"I'm going to kill you if you don't stop talking, right now." Sakura growled out murderously as fury tore through her. It wasn't Naruto's voice that was actually annoying her, but the fact the he was pointing out some of the fears that had been pestering her since they had first realized they had been stuck together.

At that precise moment though, a group a hyper Genin began to tear through the crowd after a yowling feline that scampered fatefully in between both Sakura and Naruto. Their eyes widened comically as they glanced up to stare at each other in horror before a second later the three young ninja plowed into their connected hands. It wasn't like the two ninja didn't try to move out of the way, but they fled in opposite directions in less than a heartbeat and ended up at a stalemate.

They tumbled over in the dirt road and rolled a few times before Sakura ended up lying embarrassingly on top of Naruto. The blonde had tried to reach out and help his falling teammate, but had failed epically once again. Sakura saw the mounting fear turn his pupils into pinpricks as he stuttered incomprehensively a few times in apology. Picking herself up, Sakura felt a flood of relief hit her at the sight of her right hand still free. However, as she tried to pick herself up, Sakura felt an awkward tugging sensation on her front and glared down at Naruto.

"I'm so sorry," Naruto apologized as he looked down at the position of where his hand ended up.

Fighting back her mounting rage, Sakura tried her best to ignore the hand cupping her left boob. She had to admit that this was partially her own fault this time for deciding not to put on some less revealing clothes the previous night. Her tank top only covered just enough to be slightly modest, but still left a great deal of skin above her chest area exposed. Now, Naruto's hand was stuck there, and there was still the possibility that this was permanent. Breathing out slowly, Sakura helped the idiot up and they both awkwardly began to shuffle forward, ignoring the strange, disgusted, and perverted looks thrown their way.

"I hate my life," Sakura announced bitterly as they trudged forward.

Naruto remained quiet, but the bright red flush that took over his cheeks and neck spoke enough of his embarrassment of this situation.

They eventually made it to the front doors and nearly entered when the last person Sakura wanted to see walked outside and bumped into her.

"Sorry- Oh hey, Sakura. Long time no s-" Ino began to greet her best friend until she looked down and her cyan eyes widened in disbelief. Glancing between the two frustrated and thoroughly embarrassed teammates, the blonde couldn't help herself as she burst out into laughter.

"It's not funny, Ino." Sakura told her friend through gritted teeth.

"Oh my God, you finally… made it to second base with someone!" Ino choked out in between her giggle fits. "This is priceless!"

"Shut up!"

A few people surrounding the building turned to see what all the commotion was about and wisely decided to back away and carry on with whatever they had been doing.

"Sakura-chan, we should probably go-"

"How in the world did you two end up like this!?"

"Naruto came up with a new jutsu and we accidently got stuck together. We're going to see if Tsunade-shishou can help us before anything else happens." Sakura sighed out, not wanting the blonde to make something up which she would if she left her with nothing.

"Well then, you two take care," Ino said with a wink as she practically flew down the streets, eager to start spreading rumors.

She knew Naruto could tell that she immediately calmed down after Ino had left, and of course the blonde decided to point it out.

"How come you and Ino are so… strange around each other?"

"We have a lot of history together." Sakura supplied vaguely.

"But we have a lot of history together and you don't act that way around me or Sai or even Kakashi-sensei."

"Naruto, I don't want to talk about it just help me climb these stairs."

The two awkwardly then began to proceed to hobbling up each step all the way to the top of the tower.

* * *

"Come in!"

Naruto and Sakura unsteadily got to their feet and to the door leading to the Hokage's office. They had a horribly awkward moment of silence where Sakura waited for Naruto to open the door since he was closer. However, the blonde blushed even more scarlet than before as he refused to say why he could reach out and open it. Jolting a bit at the realization, Sakura hurriedly opened the door for the two of them, and they both side-shuffled into the room.

The entire room was empty except for the Hokage and her huge stack of paper work that was left to be completed.

"What seems to be the problem, Sakura?" Tsunade asked without looking up from the paper she was currently signing.

"Well you see Tsunade-shishou, I'm in a bit of a situation." Sakura began to explain, hoping that her teacher wouldn't throw them out the minute she looked up.

Tsunade sighed and set down her writing utensil and glanced up at them before freezing at the sight before her. Sakura could hear Naruto gulp in fear as the Hokage rose from her chair and walked around her desk to stand before them. "Naruto, what are you doing to Sakura?" Her question was spoken in a calm matter that terrified the blonde even more as her unwavering gaze focused on him directly.

"N-nothing, I just- I can't- I didn't mean to-"

"Naruto, I'm giving you three seconds to get your hands in a better place or else I will make you regret it dearly."

"But I-!"

"That's what we're here to talk about, we're sort of stuck together." Sakura explained slowly as if coxing an angry tiger to back down from it's prey. "Naruto made a new jutsu that has quite a few flaws, and we think one of them is his hands sticking permanently to another person's skin."

Tsunade stood still for a moment before giving Naruto one last warning look before settling back to lean against her desk. "How long ago did this happen?"

"Yesterday afternoon," Sakura answered immediately.

"And what kind of jutsu were you hoping to achieve from this, Naruto?"

"It's called the sticky hands jutsu," Naurto supplied before launching into a quick explanation. "It's kind of a toad like jutsu that helps you stick to walls with the minimum amount of chakra so you would be harder to detect."

"…Well then that gives me an idea at least." Tsunade finally said at length as she glanced over to Naruto. "Can you summon a clone?"

Sakura found herself for the first time almost laughing at how ridiculous this situation was as the blonde glanced at both his hands and back at the Hokage. "I can't make any hand signs like this."

"Alright, then I'll just have Shima send one over from Mount Myoboku," Tsunade said as she approached a tiny frog nearly hidden by the side of her desk. "Send word to Shima that one of Naruto's clones need to be sent over immediately."

The messenger frog croaked in response before disappearing in a poof of smoke. They had to wait another minute before more smoke filled the room and a Naruto clone appeared between Sakura, Naruto, and Tsunade. With the clone so close, Naruto merely closed his eyes and easily cut the jutsu off in his mind like so many times before, feeling even more chakra flood through his system.

Opening his eyes he could feel Sakura turn to look at them curiously since they no doubt resembled a toad's with the rectangular like pupils and the unnatural golden iris that took the place of his normal cerulean color. The bright crimson outlining his golden orbs only added to the transfixing effect as he turned his questioning stare towards Tsunade.

"It might take awhile, but you'll have better luck solving this mess using your sage jutsu to pinpoint exactly how to cancel this technique. You both should be separated by tomorrow, and if not then I will surgically disconnect the two of you by any means necessary." Tsunade said flippantly as she went back to sitting behind her desk.

"But how will my sage jutsu help anymore than my regular self?" Naruto asked as Sakura began backing them away towards the door.

Sakura could almost see her teacher fighting the urge to roll her eyes. "You did say that this jutsu was toad like in nature."

* * *

It took nearly an hour to get back to her apartment, and it would quite honestly surprise Sakura if someone in Konoha didn't know about her and Naruto's situation by now. This little problem had escalated way too quickly, and now she was trying her best to study the rest of her assigned reading on the floor while Naruto meditated and tried to gather the chakra from the sticky hands jutsu back into himself.

She was just finishing the second to last chapter in her book as the sun began to set outside when a slight popping sound made her jump in alarm. At last, her boob was finally free!

Sakura couldn't resist touching the freed area with a overly happy grin that would have freaked her teammate out on a normal day, but for once the blonde didn't even seem to care as he glanced at his freed hand and sighed.

"Now for the other one," Naruto said as he glanced at their two hands that were still connected.

"Wait, you didn't even start the other one yet?" Sakura asked in a panicked tone as she realized it had taken nearly half the day to get one of his hands off of her.

"No, I haven't… but it should go faster than the first one."

Sakura didn't comment on that, and by the time it got dark, she realized that she hadn't eaten anything all day and that Naruto must have been starving. "You know, having two days to hang out with each other wasn't so bad. Would you mind going out to get something to eat again?"

Those words must have been music to Naruto's ears as he perked up and gazed eagerly up at her with those bizarre eyes. "Can we? I'll keep working on separating our hands while we eat and stuff too."

"Yeah… but just remember this is definitely not a date," She firmly reminded him as they walked out the door hand in hand.

"Aww, but Sakura-chan."

* * *

It saddened Sakura how far apart she and Naruto had gotten during the past few months. His strength was beyond practically every other ninja in the world now that he had the kyuubi on his side, and here she was eating Hibachi with him like it was the most normal thing in the world. However, she was beyond feeling like the helpless little girl that she had been years ago when Naruto and Sasuke surpassed her at nearly everything. All she had back then were her smarts, but luckily Sakura learned how to apply them and use them to her advantage later on.

No, she would never be as strong as the rest of her team, but Sakura still found herself content that she could keep pace right behind them as the fifth Hokage's apprentice. Those same childish feelings had briefly resurfaced when she noticed that whenever someone happened to glance their way and get a glimpse of Naruto's sage form, his powerful eyes seemed to offset anyone that would dare comment on their strange handholding. However, she quickly shook her head and beat the old feeling down with ease as she continued on eating her delicious chicken hibachi when a thought occurred to her.

"Hey, Naruto."

"Hm?"

"Can we go on a mission together for old times sake?"

The blonde nearly choked on his pork at the randomly asked question. "Wait, why?"

"This whole fiasco reminded me just how boring my life is. Plus I haven't been out in the field for weeks, and all I do in my free time outside the hospital is read some required books for work. I just miss having some fun and hanging out with my teammates I guess."

Naruto swallowed and gave her a happy grin. "Sure thing, I don't see a problem with that, Sakura-chan. I'll ask Kakashi-sensei and Sai first thing in the morning." He paused and frowned a bit before closing his eyes for a few seconds in concentration then a familiar popping sound occurred between them. "Haha, yes! We're free!"

Sakura smiled and couldn't help but laugh as Naruto ran around the restaurant fist pumping the air. She would never admit it out loud, but Naruto had helped lift her spirits once again. For once, she was actually looking forward to facing tomorrow.

"Hey Forehead, did you reach third base with him yet!?" Ino shouted at her from across the street, her eyes twinkling with mischief.

_On second thought, never mind_, Sakura thought miserably to herself as the entire restaurant turned their attention towards her and the blonde idiot still celebrating his freedom in the center of the restaurant.

* * *

**A/N: I don't even know where this came from. I just got a random idea and was like "Hey this sounds like a good idea" then I started writing it, and it wouldn't end. I thought this was actually going to turn into a chapter fanfic at one point. Anyways, I hope you all enjoyed!**


End file.
